CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. (KREX) — A climb to the top is never easy, but climbing with a team elevates your journey to a whole new level. Living Journeys, a program that gives hope to people impacted by cancer is celebrating 25 years of hiking to the top of Mount Crested Butte. Among this year's climbers is Eric Larsen, a Coloradan and world-renowned polar explorer who's conquered both Mount Everest and cancer.
Eric Larsen, Polar Explorer and Expedition Guide, says, “So it was stage 3b. But what followed was a pretty difficult couple of years of chemo, therapy, radiation surgery, some infections and another surgery.”
Larsen says that challenge surpassed every expedition before his diagnosis
“It was a pretty impactful journey for me when I was diagnosed. I didn't really think about climbing Mount Everest or skiing to the North or South Pole. I really thought about just having one more day with my kid,” Larsen explains.
Having that one extra moment with his children meant the world.
“When all that I really wanted was one more day and I thought man, what purpose do these adventures really serve? But ironically, it's kind of the lessons that I learned through expeditions that really helped me out,” Larsen explains.
Eric says Living Journeys helped him climb past the darkness.
“I don't think we could have gotten through my cancer diagnosis without Living Journeys. It played a really fundamental role in just being able to help pay for the bills to get to doctor's appointments. To be able to have therapy, like all these things, are really important parts of the treatment and healing process of having cancer,” Larsen said.
The group made such an impact on him, he joined the board.
Larsen explains, “Now I'm actively involved with helping fundraise and organize events, because I see how that compassion is so important in your weakest moment. I saw that firsthand, and I want to be able to pay that forward.”
And paying it forward he is. Leading other cancer patients beyond the darkness and towards hope.